There is a new exam currently in beta titled "Perform Big Data Engineering on Microsoft Cloud Services (beta)". With all new exams there is little content on how to revise for the exam beyond the exams summary. This exam however, is what Adatis specialises in! Microsoft may call this "Big Data Engineering" we call it "Modern Data Analytics" and we have a few blogs on the subject. You can sign up to the exam here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/exam-70-776.aspx Below you will find links to blog posts by Adatis consultants on topics related to all the key objectives of this exam. I will endeavour to keep this up-to-date with new content added by the team. Good luck with the exam. Design and Implement Complex Event Processing By Using Azure Stream Analytics (15-20%)Streaming data is vital to achieving real-time analytics. The following blogs posts focus on this and offer an introduction and walkthrough for getting started with Stream Analytics. When talking about a wider Lambda approach to Big Data, streaming enables rapid processing via a “Speed” layer. http://blogs.adatis.co.uk/simonwhiteley/post/Adatis-Hackathon-Jan-2015-Streaming-Analytics-First-Thoughtshttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/Jose%20Mendes/post/IoT-Hub-Device-Explorer-Stream-Analytics-Visual-Studio-2015-and-Power-BIhttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/sachatomey/post/2017/01/19/Power-BI-Streaming-Datasets-An-Alternative-PowerShell-Push-Scripthttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/Jose%20Mendes/post/Data-Data-Revolution Design and Implement Analytics by Using Azure Data Lake (25-30%)Azure Data Lake Store and Analytics are a vital component of the “Modern Data Analytics”. Data which is too large for traditional single server processing needs distributed parallel computation. Rather than pulling data and processing ADLA pushes the processing to the data. Understanding how to process large volumes of data is one part of the “Batch” layer in Lambda http://blogs.adatis.co.uk/ustoldfield/post/data-lakeshttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/ustoldfield/post/Data-Flow-Job-Execution-in-the-Azure-Data-Lakehttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/ustoldfield/post/Data-Flow-Pt-2-Vertexes-In-Azure-Data-Lake Design and Implement Azure SQL Data Warehouse Solutions (15-20%)Either as an alternative or in accompaniment to Data Lake is Azure SQL Data Warehouse. If Data Lake is batch across many files, Azure SQLDW is parallel batch over many databases. The key to both services is processing at the storage and not at the compute. The following is an on-going blog series covering the basics all the way to a deep-dive. http://blogs.adatis.co.uk/simonwhiteley/post/A-Guide-to-Azure-SQL-DataWarehousehttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/simonwhiteley/post/Azure-SQLDW-What-is-ithttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/simonwhiteley/post/Azure-SQLDW-How-Does-Scaling-Workhttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/simonwhiteley/post/Azure-SQLDW-Distributionhttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/simonwhiteley/post/Azure-SQLDW-Polybasehttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/simonwhiteley/post/Azure-SQLDW-Polybase-Design-Patternshttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/simonwhiteley/post/Azure-SQLDW-Polybase-Limitationshttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/simonwhiteley/post/Azure-SQLDW-CTAS-Statements Design and Implement Cloud-Based Integration by using Azure Data Factory (15-20%)If you’re looking for a paas solution to move data in Azure, there is only really one option. Azure Data Factory. The following blogs will get you up-to-speed with ADF. http://blogs.adatis.co.uk/terrymccann/post/Getting-started-with-Azure-Data-Factoryhttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/terrymccann/post/Setting-up-your-first-Azure-Data-Factoryhttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/terrymccann/post/Azure-Data-Factory-using-the-Copy-Data-task-to-migrate-data-from-on-premise-SQL-Server-to-Blob-storage Manage and Maintain Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Data Lake, Azure Data Factory, and Azure Stream Analytics (20-25%)Know each of the parts is only half the battle, you need to know how, when and why to use each part. What are the best practices? http://blogs.adatis.co.uk/ustoldfield/post/Deploying-a-Hybrid-Cloudhttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/terrymccann/post/Azure-Data-Factory-Suggested-naming-conventions-and-best-practiceshttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/ustoldfield/post/Azure-Data-Lake-Store-Storage-and-Best-Practiceshttp://blogs.adatis.co.uk/ustoldfield/post/Shaping-The-Lake-Data-Lake-Framework

This is the third blog in an ongoing series on Azure Data Factory. I recommend you start with the following blogs before continuing: Introduction to Azure Data Factory Setting up your first Azure Data Factory In the first blog in this series I talked about working through a use case. Over the next 3 blogs we will look at 3 different methods for migrating data to Azure Blob storage. Using the Azure Data Factory Copy Data Wizard. (on table) Using BIML and SSIS (entire database - SSIS) Using Azure Data Factory and PowerShell (entire database - ADF) The reason I have included the latter 2 versions is because if you just want to load an entire database in the blob storage it can be quicker to use one of these methods as a one off or on a scheduled basis. Hand writing all the JSON required for each move table from on premise to blob storage is very time consuming. Depending on whether you need to do a one off upload or something on a schedule options 2 and 3 might help. Our original use case from an introduction to Azure Data Factory: Let's imagine a process where you have an on premise SQL server box, you want to move multiple tables to blob storage, from there you then want to issue a stored procedure which will consume that data in to an Azure SQL data warehouse via PolyBase - As illustrated in the image below. Linked services: On-premise SQL database Azure BLOB storage Azure SQL data warehouse Datasets: Table in On-premise SQL database The blob container The stored procedure Pipelines: Pipeline to move data from SQL database to blob storage Pipeline to issue stored procedure In the blog we will tackle the first part: Copying data: We are going to start looking in a bit more in detail at the Azure Data Factories (ADF) copy data task (CD). CD is still in preview (at the time of writing [01/2007]). Prior to the inclusion of the copy data wizard, you had to manually configure ADF artefacts and write most of the JSON for linked services, datasets and pipeline by hand. The copy data task is a wizard for generating a data movement activity pipeline, complete with datasets and linked services. To get started connect to azure and navigate to your existing Azure data factory (if you do not have an existing ADF you can follow how to create one here http://blogs.adatis.co.uk/Terry%20McCann/post/Setting-up-your-first-Azure-Data-Factory). To begin setting up a copy data pipeline click on the "copy data (PREVIEW)" option in the ADF panel in Azure. Once you have selected "Copy data" you will be taken to the new ADF interface. Datafactory.azure.com enables the creation and monitoring of ADF pipelines. The general process for creating an ADF pipeline process (prior to the copy data task) was Create an ADF Create a linked service/s Create a gateway as needed Create you input and output datasets Create a pipeline Monitor the pipeline When using the ADF copy data the process is slightly flipped Create an ADF Configure the properties for the pipeline Create a gateway Configure the linked service/s Configure the datasets Deploy all configurations Monitor the pipeline. The main difference here is that you do not deploy anything until it has all been configured, you have the added advantage that it is somewhat cumbersome to do this manually. At present, the copy data task is very narrow in its functionality. If your intention is to build a more advanced pipeline will either need to generate a move task and tweak it or create it all manually. Copy data has many short comings, for our example the most prevalent is that a movement to blob storage only has the option to sink data to a folder and not multiple folders. Option 3 in our list of methods for migration aims to get around this limitation using PowerShell Configure Pipeline properties:Once you have selected "copy data" you will be launched in to datafactory.azure.com, the new fresher looking environment. The copy data task is a 4 stop process which will guide you through the creation of a data movement pipeline (I want to highlight that this is only used for data movement and not transformation). This is a great way to get you started with ADF without having to understand the json or trickier elements such as data slices and scheduling, although we will touch on scheduling as it is quite tricky. (image 1 - Configure Properties) The first screen is you will see are the properties of the pipeline you're creating. It is here you will configure the frequency and schedule of the pipeline. A pipeline is a group of logically related activities. Task name - This is important and will be used as a prefix for the names of datasets and data stores. Task description - Task schedule - See below for a more in depth analysis. Start time - This date is in UTC / End time - This data is also in UTC For quick conversions to your time zone, I recommend worldtimebuddy (http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/) More on schedules:The Microsoft page about scheduling is incredibly deep and takes a lot of effort to fully digest and understand. I will attempt to impart my understanding of pipeline scheduling in to a brief list of key points. You can read more here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/data-factory-scheduling-and-execution I would recommend that you do read this site as there is a lot of good examples. The key points from this document are: A schedule can be one-off or between dates It can run on a scheduled basis Minute, hourly, daily or weekly. Every 15 minutes is the minimum. This forms what is known as a tumbling window. Microsoft defines a tumbling window as "A series of fixed-size, non-overlapping, contiguous time intervals". Tumbling windows are also known as activity windows. A pipeline schedule's interval needs to be the same as a datasets availability - However, it does not need to run at the same time. For our example we will use frequency of "Daily" and an interval of "1", this will run our pipeline every day. To write this in JSON and not through the wizard you would use the following JSON as part of your pipeline. "scheduler": {"frequency": "Daily","interval": 1} To create a pipeline which will run undefinably you can set the end date time to "12/31/2099 12:00am" which while this is not infinite, the date will outlive ADF. Start date time will default to the time you have created the pipeline (n.b. these dates are expressed in US format MM/DD/YYYY). Creating linked services (Source data store):The next screen is the configuration of the linked sources. ADF is still new and the terminology is somewhat confusing. Depending on tool you're using and sometimes the screen you're looking at, ADF will mix up the names for key parts, anywhere you see the term "data store" assume it is referring to a linked service. For our example we will use the SQL Server option (bottom right of the above image). (Image - SQL Server linked service configuration screen) You should now be able to configure the connection details (via a gateway) to you SQL server database. Connection Name - You can refer to the Adatis naming standard as a referenceLS - Linked serviceMSQL - Microsoft SQL ServerPerson - Table being exported. Gateway - Select an existing or create a new gateway (see below) Server name - For my example I am using my local server with the default instance "." local would also work. If you're connecting to a named instance this will need to be server\InstanceName Database Name - Which database you want to connect to Credential encryption - You have the option to save a credential in Azure or use authentication through the browser. For simplicity I am using the latter. For production, use the former. Authentication type - How to connect to SQL Server, Windows or SQL login. User name Password Creating and configuring a gateway:In our example we will be connecting to a local version of SQL Server, to connect and read data we will need to create an ADF gateway connection and also install our gateway on the server which has our database (or at least connection to that database). You have a few options to create the gateway, but before you can configure any of these you will need to download and install the gateway. You can find the latest version of the gateway here https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=39717. Once installed the gateway will be waiting for an access key. (image - Microsoft gateway - Awaiting gateway key) We have 3 options to create an ADF gateway and obtain the key the gateway is expecting. Copy Data configuration page (click create gateway)This will build the gateway and add the name to your pipeline. You will need to take the access key it generates and add that to you installed gateway. Add via author and deployNavigate to author and deploy on the main panel of ADF in Azure. Click on "...More" and select New Data gateway, configure and deploy. This will return a key. Add the key to the gateway on your server. Via PowerShellOpen a new PowerShell prompt and connect to Azure (Login-AzureRmAccount)Replace the following with your Azure details - $ResourceGroup, $DataFactoryName and $GatewayNew-AzureRmDataFactoryGateway -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroup -Name $Gateway -DataFactoryName $DataFactoryName -Description $GatewayThis will return a key. Add the key to the gateway on your server. (image - A registered gateway) (Image - main screen on a registered gateway) Configuring linked services:Select next to choose which table/s you wish to move. (Image - ADF Copy - Select tables) You can select one or more tables here. For our example we will be consuming the data using PolyBase. We want our data to sink to its own container in Azure. As such we cannot move multiple tables at once (at the time of writing this is limited to one sink container). (Image - ADF data filter) You will next be asked how you want to filter the data. Each time our data runs we are looking to move the whole table. If we were looking to do incremental loads, we could select a column which indicates which rows to import each hour. For our example select Filter: None. Next (image - ADF destination Source) Configuring the destination source:On the next screen you will see the list of available sinks (where you can insert data). You will notice the list of sinks is far smaller than the list of sources - at present not all sources can be sinks. For our example select Azure Blob storage Connection Name - Based on Adatis ADF naming standards http://blogs.adatis.co.uk/Terry%20McCann/post/Azure-Data-Factory-Suggested-naming-conventions-and-best-practices LS_ Linked Service ABLB_ Blob storage Person - blob container data will sink to Account selection method - Manual/Azure list Azure subscription - Select you subscription Storage account name - Select your storage account (Image - Selecting a blob container) Select a folder for the file to sink to. I created a folder ahead of time called person. (Image - ADF file format configuration screen) Customise you output settings. For now we will just select the defaults to create a CSV. Select finish to build your pipeline. (image - ADF deployment completed screen) As long as everything has worked you will see the screen above. Congratulations your pipeline has been deployed. To monitor the pipeline and see what has been created select the link "click here to monitor your pipeline". You will be taken to a different screen in the ADF portal. We will have more on how to monitor ADF shortly. Image - (ADF pipeline in datafactory.azure.com) You can check data has moved successfully using Azure storage explorer. ASE is a great utility for browsing files in blob storage. You can download ASE here http://storageexplorer.com/ (image - Storage explorer) I can see that my file is there and is populated as intended. Once a further 24 hours has passed this file will be over written. So we have seen what we can do with the Copy data task in Azure. While it is fantastic at basic data movement functions, copy data does not offer much beyond that. I have listed the following pains and shortfalls which exit in ADF copy data at present . Limitations of the copy data wizard:There are quite a few limitations, some of these are nice to have, others are show stoppers. The CD action is limited to only a subset of the pipeline activities. As the name suggests you can only copy data, or move data. There is no transformation wizard. The menus are very temperamental and regularly do not work You cannot name a dataset - InputDataset-8tl was created in my example. This is not helpful The name of the pipeline is also not helpful. You cannot chain multiple activities together Each pipeline needs to created separately. You can only sink datasets to one blob container. Now that we have our data in blob storage we can begin to look at the rest of our solution, where we will create an Azure SQL Data Warehouse, with external PolyBase tables. We will use stored procedures to persist the external tables in to ASDW. In the next blog we will look at moving an entire database to Azure blob storage using SSIS and BIML. Links https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/data-factory/data-factory-scheduling-and-execution http://blogs.adatis.co.uk/Terry%20McCann/post/Azure-Data-Factory-Suggested-naming-conventions-and-best-practices

(Image 1 – Microsoft 2017 - https://academy.microsoft.com/en-us/professional-program/data-science) In 2016 I was talking to Andrew Fryer (@DeepFat)- Microsoft technical evangelist, (after he attended Dundee university to present about Azure Machine Learning), about how Microsoft were piloting a degree course in data science. My interest was immediately spiked. Shortly after this hints began appear and the Edx page went live. Shortly after the Edx page went live, the degree was rebranded as the "Professional Program". I registered to be part of the pilot, however was not accepted until the course went live in September 2016. Prior to 2016 my background was in BI, predominately in Microsoft Kimball data warehousing using SQL Server. At the end of 2015 I enrolled on a Master's Degree in Data Science through the University of Dundee. I did this with the intention of getting exposure to tools I had an interest in, but had some/little commercial experience (R, Machine learning and statistics). This course is ongoing and will finish in 2018, I highly recommend it! I would argue that it is the best Data Science Master's degree course in the UK. So going in to the MPP I had a decent idea of what to expect, plus a lot of SQL experience, R and Power BI. Beyond that I had attended a few sessions at various conferences on Azure ML. When the syllabus for the MPP came out, it directly complemented my studies. Link to program - https://academy.microsoft.com/en-us/professional-program/data-science Link to Dundee Masters - https://www.dundee.ac.uk/study/pg/data-science/ Structure of the program The program is divided up in to 9 modules and a final project. All modules need to be completed but there are different options you can take - You can customise the course to suit your interests. You can choose to pay for the course (which you will need to do if you intend to work towards the certification) or audit the course for free. I will indicate which modules I took and why. Most modules recommend at least 6 weeks part-time to complete. I started the first module in the middle of September 2016 and completed the final project middle of January 2017 – So the 6 week estimate is quite high, especially if you already have decent a base knowledge of the concepts already. You can if you wish complete multiple modules at once. I am not sure I recommend this approach as to get the most out of the course, you should read around the subject as well as watching the videos. Each module has a start date and an end date that you need to complete it between. If you do not you will need to do it all again. You can start a module in one period and wait until the next for another module. You do not need to complete them all in 3 months. If you pay for the module but do not request your certificate before the course closes, you will need to take it again (top tip, as soon as you're happy with you score, request you certificate). Module list Module Detail Time taken Data Science Orientation Data Science Orientation 2 - 3 days Query Relational Data Querying Data with Transact-SQL 1 day - Exam only Analyze and Visualize Data Analyzing and Visualizing Data with Excel Analyzing and Visualizing Data with Power BI 2 - 4 days Understand Statistics Statistical Thinking for Data Science and Analytics 7 - 9 days Explore Data with Code Introduction to R for Data Science Introduction to Python for Data Science 7 - 9 days Understand Core Data Science Concepts Data Science Essentials 7 - 9 days Understand Machine Learning Principles of Machine Learning 2 weeks Use Code to Manipulate and Model Data Programming with R for Data Science Programming with Python for Data Science R - 2 - 3 daysPython - 3 weeks Develop Intelligent Solutions Applied Machine Learning Implementing Predictive Solutions with Spark in HDInsight Developing Intelligent Applications 2 weeks Final Project Data Science Challenge 2 months* The times taken are based on the time I had spare. I completed each module between projects, in the evening and at the weekend. This module can be completed in a few days, however you need to wait until it has completed to get you grade. Structure of the modules Each modules is online. You log on to the Edx website and watch videos by leading experts. Either at the end of the video, after reading some text or at the end of a section of the modules you are given a multiple choice test. The multiple choice options are graded and form part of your overall score. The other main assessment method is labs, where you will be required to complete a series of tasks and enter the results. Unlike certifications, you get to see what your score is as you progress through the module. The multiple choice questions generally allow you to have two to three attempts at the answer, sometimes these are true/false with two attempts, which does undermine the integrity of the course. There is normally a final section which you're only given one chance to answer, and holds a higher % towards your final mark. You need 70% to pass. Once you hit 70% you can claim your certificate - if you have chosen to pay for the module. Modules range from $20 to $100. For the most part I answered the questions fully and tried for the highest score possible. However, In all honestly towards the end, once I hit around 80%, I started looking at a different module. If the module was really interesting I would persevere. Modules Data Science Orientation, Query Relational Data & Analyze and Visualize Data. These modules are very basic and really only skim the surface of all the topics they describe. The first module is a gentle introduction to the main concepts you will learn throughout the program. The next modules focused on querying data with SQL. Regardless of your opinion of SQL, you must agree that SQL the is language of data. Having an understanding of the fundamentals of SQL is paramount, as almost every level of the Microsoft Data Science stack has integration with databases. If you're familiar with SQL (I already held an MCSE in SQL 2012) you can skip the main content of this module and just take the test at the end. For the next you have an option of Excel or Power BI for visualisation. As I have experience with Power BI I opted for this module. Once again this is a very basic introduction to Power BI. It will get you familiar enough with the tool that you can do basic data exploration. Some parts of this course jarred with me. Data visualisation is so important and a key skill for any data scientist. In the Power BI module one of the exercises was to create a 3d pie chart. Pie charts are not a good visualisation as it is hard to differentiate between angles and making it 3d only escalates the issue. I wish Microsoft would have made reference to some of the great data viz experts when making this module - I cannot comment on the Excel version. Understanding statistics. This module is different from its predecessors, in that it is not run by Microsoft. This is a MOOC from Columbia university, which you might have completed before. It covers a lot of the basic and more advanced stats that you need to know for data science. In particular a solid grounding in probability and probability theory. In BI you become familiar with descriptive stats and measures of variance, however I had not done a great deal of stats beyond this. I have researching statistical methods for the MSc, but I had not done any real stats since A-Level maths. This course was really interesting and I learnt a lot. I don’t know if this is the best way to really learn stats, but it is a good primer to what you need to know. I found topping up my understanding with blogs, books and YouTube helped support this module. Explore data with code. You have two options again for this module, R and Python. Which should you learn I imagine you're asking, well the simple answer is both. Knowing either R or Python will get you so far, knowing both with make you a unicorn. Many ask why to learn one language over the other - aside from the previous point. R is very easy to get in to, it has a rich catalogue of libraries written by some of the smartest statistical minds. It has a simple interface and is easy to install. Python is harder to learn in my opinion as the language is massive! I found Python harder to work with, but it is much richer. I would recommend Python just for SciKitLearn the machine learning library. The python module is extended to use code dojo (the great online tuition site). As you progress through the questions and examples, you have an ide which will check you understanding and will grade you as you go. I found this really helpful. This module is again a bit on the easier side. If you think the later Python module will be similar, you are in for a surprise! I did not take the R module as I was already using R in my day job. Understand core data science concepts. Almost a redo of the first module and the understanding statistics module. Not a lot to say here, but repetition helped me understand and remember the concepts. The more I had to think about the core concepts the more they stuck. This module could have been removed with little to no impact on the course, but helped solidify my knowledge. Understanding Machine learning. As this is a Microsoft course this module is all about Azure Machine Learning. If you have not used Azure ML before, it has a nice drag and drop interface which allows you to build quick simple models and create a web api key which you can then pass data to using any tool with a REST API. This module is half theory and half practical. There are a lot of labs, so you will need to take you time. If you skip ahead you will get the answers wrong and might not make it to 70%. Using code to manipulate and model data. This section has two options again R and Python. I know quite a bit or R already so I started with Python. I wanted to do them both to see how you can do machine learning in both. I was expecting a continuation of the code dojo format from the previous module, this was far from the case. Each of the modules up until this point have worked with you to find the right answer. This module will equip you with the basics, but expect you to find the correct function and answer. Believe me when I say it was hard (with little prior experience of Python). The course will lead you to towards the right resources, but you need to read the documentation to answer the question. This was a great change of pace. Having to search for the answers made me absorb more than just the quizzes. This module was a struggle. Once I completed this I did the same for R. On a difficulty scale, if the Python module was 100, R was only at 20. The disparity in difficult is massive and frankly unfair. I was able to complete the R module very quickly. I left feeling disappointed that this did not have the same complexity that the Python module did. Develop intelligent solutions. For this section you can pick one of three modules, Machine learning, Spark or micro services. I went with Spark. Why? Because I had already worked with Spark and Hadoop as part of the MSc at Dundee. I knew how it worked and what it did from an open source point of view, but not from a Microsoft HD-Insight perspective. This module was tricky but nothing compared to the Python module. I spent the best part of the week working on Spark, setting up HD-Insight clusters and forgetting to tear them down (top tip! Don’t leave a HD-Insight cluster running - They are EXPENSIVE!). The last module is a machine learning project, so picking the "Applied Machine Learning" option might put you in a better place than your competition. I did not attempt either the Machine Learning or the Micro-services modules. Final project. Here is where the fun begins. You're given a problem and a dataset. You need to clean, reduce, derive features and process the dataset, then apply an ML technique to predict something. In my case it was whether or not someone will default on a loan. You could use any technique you liked as long as the final result was in Azure ML. I was pretty happy with my model early on and made very few tweaks as the course progressed. Unlike the previous modules where you can complete a module and get your score, your final score is only available once the module has ended. You will build an ML experiment and test against a private dataset. You can submit your experiment 3 times a day to be scored against the private data (maximus of 100 attempts). This will give you an indication of your score, but this is not your score! You score is calculated against a different dataset after the module has finished. You top 5 scores will be used to test against the private closed data. If you have over-fitted you model, you might have a shock (as many did on the forums) when you score is marked. I completed all modules at the start of January and waited until February to get my final score. My highest scoring answer, when used against the closed private dataset, did not get over the required 70% to pass. This was surprising but not all that unexpected. I had over-fitted the model. To counter balance this, I created 5 different experiments with 5 similar but different approaches. All score similar (~1-3% accuracy difference). This was enough to see me past the required 70% and to obtain the MPP in data science. The private dataset has been published now. In the coming weeks I will blog about the steps I took to predict if someone would default on their loan. I have been asked at different stages of the course "would you recommend the course?". It really depends on what you want out of the course! If you expect to be a data scientist after completing the MPP, then you might be in for a shock. To get the most out of the course you need to supplement it with wider reading / research. YouTube has many great videos and recorded lectures which will really help process the content and see it taught from a different angle. If you're looking to get an understanding of the key techniques in Data Science (from a Microsoft point-of-view) then you should take this course. If you're doing a degree where you need to do research, many of the modules will really help and build upon what you already know. I hope you have found this interesting and that it has helped you decide whether or not you want to invest the time and money (each module is not free). If you do decide and you persevere you will too be the owner of the MPP in Data Science (as seen below). Terry McCann - Adatis Data Science Consultant & Organiser of the Exeter Data Science User Group - You can find us on MeetUp.